Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
(Traditional Music)
“Supernatural” by Santana
“Supernatural” – Background
Carlos Santana (born July 20th 1947) is a Mexican/American musician who first
rose to prominence in the late 1960s / early 1970s for his fusion of rock music
with Latin American rhythms and instrumental groupings. His band, simply called
‘Santana’, had a very distinctive sound that fused together his effortless melodic
blues based guitar playing with Latin and African based rhythms, largely
captured by the use of percussion instruments such as congas and timbales not
normally found in rock music at that time. Influenced by blues players such as
B.B. King, John Lee-Hooker, Jimi Hendrix, Peter Green, Mike Bloomfield and
Hank Marvin, Santana developed a highly distinctive sound characterized by
virtuosic playing with soulful, extended improvised solos, coloured with pitch
bends, ornamentation and sweeping runs. In common with many other similar
musicians of the time, his music became less fashionable in the mid to late 70s
when Punk Rock dominated the scene, but he experienced an extraordinary
revival in the late 1990s, particularly with his seventeenth album “Supernatural”
which won nine Grammys, album of the year, went 15 times platinum and was a
major hit across the world.
Santana was born in Autlan de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico and started his musical
journey at a very young age, taking up violin at the age of five. His father who
was a Mariachi musician and an accomplished professional orchestral violinist
taught him. Mariachi is a form of traditional Mexican music that gradually
evolved into what is often now referred to as Son music. At the age of eight the
young Carlos emigrated from violin to guitar preferring the sound of the
instrument. Santana’s father was frequently absent during his early years and
eventually the family moved to Tijuana, a city right on the Mexican/Californian
border before finally settling in San Francisco. This movement and exposure to
different musical cultures was clearly instrumental in helping Santana forge his
own unique and individual style in the 60s and 70s. This was not unusual in
America. As one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse countries in the
world, it was common for bands to form that contained musicians from different
musical and cultural backgrounds, each bringing their own experience and
stylistic qualities to create a new fusion of sound. Other examples from the same
period include Steely Dan (rock/pop/jazz) and Little Feat (rock/jazz/funk/Latin).
The album is one of the best selling albums in the world, reaching no 1 in many
countries and selling over 30 million copies. Unlike most of Santana’s previous
albums, this one is a little more unusual in that it contains different artists,
mainly vocal, on different tracks. This is certainly not a new concept, for
example, the English blues/rock singer Paul Rodgers (Free/bad Company/Queen)
released ‘Muddy Waters Blues’ in 1993, featuring a different lead guitarist on
each track. However, unlike the Paul Rodgers recording, where the album has a
unity in that all the tracks are blues based, in the case of ‘Supernatural’ it could
be argued that the album lacks unity and cohesion because the musical styles
and artists, particularly the singers, are so diverse. Of course it could also be
argued that this diversity is the album’s strength because there is great variety
in the musical content. The three tracks that we have selected for study
exemplify this diversity, ‘Love of my Life’, ‘Smooth’ and ‘Migra’.
‘Love of my Life’
Co-written with Dave Matthews, a South African/American singer/song-
writer/guitarist
Guitar – Carlos Santana
Vocal – Dave Matthews
Keyboards – George Whitty
Bass – Benny Rietveld
Drums – Carter Beauford
Congas and percussion – Karl Perazzo
Structure:
Intro / Verse 1 / Verse 2 / Verse 3 / Chorus / Instrumental verse x 2 / Chorus /
Bridge / Latin instrumental section leading to fade-out
After the death of his father in 1997, Santana didn’t really feel up to playing or
even listening to music for some time. When he did return to it, perhaps not
surprisingly, given his father’s background, he started listening to radio channels
playing classical music. One of the pieces that he was struck with was the
opening ‘cello theme from the third movement of Brahms’ third symphony in F,
Poco Allegretto. This beautifully arching, lyrical theme in 3/8 metre definitely has
a somewhat somber, melancholic, contemplative mood so it is not difficult to see
how this might affect someone grieving the loss of their father. There are
several (coincidental) parallels between Brahms and Santana in this respect:
• Both started their musical studies at an early age and became prodigious
performers
• They both developed an ability to compose sustained melodic ideas,
Brahms through carefully crafted development of initial musical ideas,
often based on minimal material, Santana through extended
improvisation based on initial ideas. He was renowned for never playing
the same solo exactly the same twice
• Brahms was 50 when he wrote the third symphony, Santana was 51
when Supernatural was released
• Each produced (arguably) their most successful work later in life
• Brahms spent much of his later years composing music specifically for
other musicians he admired and befriended, for example, the clarinet
works for Richard Muhlfeld, and Santana composed the songs on
Supernatural for various different artists to sing and play
Brahms’ melody certainly made a strong impact on Santana at this time of his
life and it forms the basis of ‘Love of my Life’. The original Brahms melody is
twelve bars long, in the key of C minor, 3/8 time and played by the ‘cello section.
To make this more accessible at GCSE level, here it has been modified into ¾
time:
Santana’s version is virtually identical in relation to:
• The melodic shape in pitch
• The melody starting with an anacrusis (up-beat)
• A similar sombre, melancholic, contemplative mood is created although
this becomes more optimistic in the final section
However, Santana’s version is a master class in creative arranging making some
clever and significant changes to alter the character and style of the music:
• He changes the metre from 3 to 4
• He changes the key from C minor to G minor, one of Santana’s favoured
keys
• The long notes are syncopated, appearing on the last half beat of the bar
rather than the first beat of the next bar
• Santana splits Brahms’ theme using bars 1 to 8 for the introduction, bars
5 – 8 at the end of the verse and bars 9 – 12 for the chorus
Intro
The song starts with quite a lengthy intro before settling into a not untypical pop
song structure. The opening drum kit upbeat leads into a four bar strident rock
beat accompanied by Congas and characterized by:
1. The backbeat snare drum and
2. The bass drum semiquaver ‘kick’ on the very last 16th beat of the bar
leading into the first beat of the next bar giving the music a strong sense
of drive and urgency despite the steady tempo:
Second Verse
The second verse develops from the first in that it is constructed from a call and
response conversation between guitar and voice with Santana reverting to the
original melody from the introduction.
Third Verse
The third verse is structured exactly the same as the first with the guitar
responses from Santana becoming a little more bold and expansive.
Chorus
The chorus is very brief and based on the final four bars of the original Brahms
melody, Santana’s guitar playing in unison with Matthews’ vocal melody. Note
how the syncopated feel is maintained, together with the addition of triplet
figures at the end of the phrase:
Santana’s Guitars
For his earliest albums, Santana tended to use a Gibson Les Paul, initially with
P90 pick-ups but later Humbucker pick-ups.
©Don Bayley/istock
The tone of this was not dissimilar to the Gibson SG that he often used on stage
at that time.
Note: at GCSE level, students often confuse tone and tonality, especially in the
listening test. Try not to make this basic error because the two things are
distinctly different:
Tonality – refers to the key or mode of the music, e.g. the music is in a Major key
or the music is in the Dorian mode.
Tone – refers to the quality and character of the sound of an instrument, voice
or electronic sound source, e.g. the tone of the clarinet is mellow or the tone of
Joe Cocker’s voice is gravelly. (If you’ve studied ‘With a Little help from my
Friends’ by The Beatles, you may have heard Joe Cocker’s version. If not, have a
listen and you’ll understand.
©Don Bayley/istock
Neither of these were the most refined of guitars, particularly in relation to the
neck, but the double cutaway of the SG allowed access to the highest notes and
frets that Santana frequently liked to use. In the mid 1970s he started to use a
Yamaha SG 175 which also had a double cut-away like the Gibson, but a slightly
more streamlined body and neck, and importantly, 24 frets rather than 22. He
also started to use Mesa Boogie Amplifiers and the sound from these contributed
to the ‘rounding’ of his tone.
©RapidEye/istock
Use of effects
Santana uses very few effects preferring to maximize the output from
Humbucker pick-ups and tube driven amplifiers. Tube or Valve amplifiers use
vacuum tubes or valves rather than solid-state circuitry to produce the
amplification. The general perception is that they produce a ‘warmer’ tone and
are therefore often used more widely by guitarists of Santana’s generation who
grew up with them. His most often used pedal board is a MU-TRON volume /
wah-wah pedal board that he has used for most of his career.
“Smooth”
‘Smooth’ is a sensual dance record collaboration between Santana and the
singer Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, an American alternative rock band. It
remains one of the biggest hits of all time spending 30 weeks in the top ten of
the Billboard Hot 100, 12 of those at number 1, and only surpassed by Mark
Ronson and Bruno Mars’ ‘Uptown Funk’ (31 weeks) in 2015. It is still Santana’s
biggest hit to date and is regarded as the all time second most successful
Billboard song behind ‘The Twist’.
Lead vocals - Rob Thomas
Lead guitar - Carlos Santana
Bass - Benny Rietveld
Drums - Rodney Holmes
Percussion - Karl Perazzo
Congas - Raul Rekow
Keyboards - Chester Thompson
Trombones - Jeff Cressman and Jose Abel Figueroa
Trumpets - William Ortiz and Javier Melendez
Programmer - Mark Dobson
Written by Rob Thomas, DeGaetano and Ital Shur
Structure
Intro
Verse 1
Bridge
Chorus (followed by intro riff)
Verse 2
Bridge
Chorus (with additional bar)
Guitar solo (based on intro riff)
Chorus
Long outro based on intro riff – fade to end
‘Smooth’ is another Latin based song from the album, essentially a Bossa Nova
with Cha-cha elements. Hugely successful, it divides opinion with many critics
despising it but millions of fans loving the infectious rhythms and guitar / horn
riffs. You will make up your own mind but there is no disputing its success as a
major hit at the end of the 20th century.
Santana had little to do with the composition of the song other than to
contribute the guitar parts that are crucial to the overall sound and success of
the recording. Much of the song is based around the guitar/bass riff that appears
in the intro.
Introduction
Like ‘Love of my Life’, ‘Smooth’ starts with a brief one bar drum fill before the
exciting three part contrapuntal texture in the key of A minor bursts in between
guitar, bass and the horn section over a strong Bossa Nova rhythm. The bass
provides the syncopated riff, the guitar the main melodic theme and the horns a
strong, syncopated counter-melody. The term Horn Section is often used to refer
to a group of brass/wind instruments in various genres such as rock, blues, soul,
jazz, ska and reggae. The horn section is usually there to provide instrumental
colour and usually play either countermelodies or close harmonies in a variety of
textures, homophonic, contrapuntal, unison or octaves. Sometimes various
members of the horn section will take individual improvised solos as well. Horn
sections can contain any combination of brass/wind instruments, usually
trumpet, trombone and various saxophones, usually one or more of alto, tenor,
baritone. In ‘Smooth’ the horn section contains two trumpets and two trombones
and all the features mentioned above are evident in the song. There are some
very famous Horn Sections such as the Tower of Power horns who are highly
regarded and in great demand to support bands playing live on the road.
Pre-Chorus /Bridge
Immediately after the verse there is a pre-chorus or bridge leading to the chorus.
The majority of this is based on the same chord sequence as the verse. For the
first time we hear an additional keyboard, a Hammond Organ, sometimes called
a Tone-wheel Organ. This fills out the texture with typically inverted chords:
Root (A) at the bottom Third (C) at the bottom Fifth (E) at the bottom
Chorus
The bridge builds steadily in dynamic until we reach the chorus:
“Migra”
Composed by Santana, Rachid Taha and Tony Lyndsay.
Vocals – Tony Lindsay, K. C. Porter, Karl Perazzo
Guitar and sleigh bells – Carlos Santana
Keyboards – Chester D. Thompson
Accordion – K.C. Porter
Bass – Benny Rietveld
Drums – Rodney Holmes
Percussion – Karl Perazzo
Congas – Raul Rekow
Trumpet – Jose Abel Figueroa, Marvin McFadden, Mic Gillette
Trombone – Ramon Flores, Mic Gillette
Structure
Structurally this is one of the simplest songs on the album. Basically it consists
of a verse (theme) over a bass riff, drum groove and a single chord with three
contrasting sections, two of which are not completely independent from the
theme. We’ll call these contrasting sections Interludes. They add variety and
interest in what is otherwise a very repetitive structure. After all of these basic
elements have been introduced they are repeated and layered together in
different combinations.
Intro
Verse / theme – bass riff, clave rhythm, improvised call and response
Interlude 1 – accordion and synth programming
Verse / Theme – shortened
Interlude 2 – trumpets in harmony
Interlude 3 – new rock rhythm and bass riff with improvised guitar solo
Verse / Theme –
Interlude 2 – trumpets in harmony – repeat with bass riff to bridge 3
Interlude 1 – leading to final cadence
‘Migra’ is a protest song against what used to be the American Immigration and
Naturalization Service who would undertake raids on undocumented immigrants
in the United States. Although a protest song, the essential message is one of
peace. ‘Migra’ is Spanish slang for Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The opening of the song starts with a four bar tom-tom introduction on the
drum kit using a Clave rhythm. Clave is the repeated rhythmic pattern used as
the basis of Afro-Cuban music. There are two basic types of clave, Rhumba Clave
and Son Clave. ‘Migra’ uses the Son Clave:
As you might expect, the rhythm also became popular in America and was
quickly adopted by Rock ‘n’ Roll musicians such as Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley.
Bo Diddley used the rhythm so much that it became known as the ‘Bo Diddley
Beat’ and Santana’s use of the clave in ‘Migra’ closely resembles the Bo Diddley
beat. Many artists have used combinations of Son Clave and Bo Diddley Beat to
the extent that it has become universally accepted and used in many musical
cultures. Some notable examples worthy of listening are:
‘Not Fade Away’ –The Rolling Stones, 1964 (originally recorded by Buddy
Holly in 1957)
‘American Girl’ – Tom petty and the Heartbreakers, 1977
‘Faith’ – George Michael, 1987
‘Desire’ – U2, 1988
Santana’s version is at a typical tempo of Crotchet = 125 and with the additional
tom-tom and closed hi-hat beats looks something like this:
©Bryan Faust/Istock
There are many makes of ‘wah-wah’ pedal but with all of them the principal is
the same. The pedal is linked between the guitar and the amplifier and when the
pedal is pressed it produces the desired ‘wah-wah’ effect. The player controls
the speed and intensity of the effect with the pedal.
At the end of the verse we get the first interlude, a really catchy two bar riff
played on accordion and doubled by synth programming continuing over the top
of the bass riff and clave rhythm:
Quotation removed, copyrighted material.
©artproem/istock
The accordion riff is played four times after which, we return to another verse
with more ‘call and response’ between voice and lead guitar.
After this shortened verse we hear the second interlude. This is made up from
the same bass riff and clave rhythm and a new eight bar melodic idea played on
two trumpets. This is very typical of afro-Cuban music with the two trumpets
playing in harmony that is for the most part in parallel 3rds. Basically this means
that the two parts move together rhythmically a 3rd apart:
Quotation removed, copyrighted material.
Glossary of terms
Anacrusis
An upbeat to a musical theme starting before the first beat of the bar
Augmentation
Extending a musical idea rhythmically
Backbeat
(Or offbeat) Refers usually to the second and fourth beat in a drum rhythm in
4/4 time
BPM
The number of beats in a minute in a musical pulse
Bridge
In song-writing a bridge is usually a contrasting section performed before
returning to a verse or chorus. Can also be called a ‘Middle 8’
Congas
Tall wooden drums - Latin percussion instruments
Contrapuntal
Two or more independent melodic lines performed at the same time
Double Tracking
Recording the same identical musical phrase twice on different tracks to produce
a chorus type effect
Falsetto
False voice. Male vocal in highest register
Feedback
Using the amplifier to set up vibration with the strings on electric guitar
producing a howling effect
Fusion
Music that combines different forms and genres
Horn section
A group of wind/brass instruments in rock, soul, jazz etc.
Humbucker pickup
A double coil electric guitar pickup
Inversions
An inverted chord is one where any note from the chord appears as the lowest in
pitch other than the root
Interlude
Similar to a bridge or a break, an interlude breaks up the structure
Imitation
One part copying or imitating another, not necessarily at the same pitch
Lip trills
Using the lips to produce a trill effect on brass instruments rather than the
valves
Modulation
Process of changing from one key to another
Mordent
A musical ornament involving moving rapidly from one note, to another, then
back again
Octave
The interval of eight notes
Ostinato
A constantly repeated musical phrase
Passing notes
Melodic notes that do not form part of the essential harmonic structure but
‘pass’ between one chord and another
Perfect cadence
A perfect cadence is a progression from V to I in both major and minor keys. It
gives the musical phrase a sense of finish
Pitch Bend
Bending the strings on a string instrument such as guitar
Punk Rock
Started in the mid 1970s. Short, fast and furious characterized by simple chord
structures
Rap
A vocal part that combines elements of speech, rhythm and chant
Riff
A short, repeated musical phrase
Root
The note from which the chord grows i.e. the 1st note
Sequence
Repetition of a music motif or melodic phrase at a higher or lower pitch
Stepwise
Refers to melody in cases where the movement is largely by step, i.e. from one
note to the next adjacent note
Syncopation
Refers to stresses in the rhythmic flow that appear to be off the main beats in
the pulse
Timbales
Shallow single-headed drums with a metal casing
Tonality
The key of a piece of music
Tone
The sound quality of an instrument or voice
Tremolo
Producing a trembling effect, usually on a string instrument
Triplet
Three notes played in the time of two
Turn
A musical ornament where the player rapidly ’turns’ around the note
Vibrato
Making a note vibrate rather than playing/singing it pure
Virtuoso
A musician with the highest level of technical skill and proficiency